Monthly Archives: November 2019

Milonga

A new, abbreviated blog format for my regular milongas

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Shorthand abbreviated blog.jpg

I’d intended to go to the Tango on the Thames lesson and milonga on Sunday, but my BsAs sleep deprivation finally caught up with me, a week later. I think I’d largely been running on adrenalin since our return, riding the high!

I had a lazy day Sunday, and was in bed by early evening yesterday, so now felt rested – if not entirely relaxed due to a bit of a frustrating end to the day. I trusted that tango would take care of that, and indeed it did …

Continue reading A new, abbreviated blog format for my regular milongas →

Workshop

Walking and Musicality: a workshop with the Costas

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costas

Meeting one’s heroes can be dangerous! I’ve long been an admirer of Adrian’s walk, having seen it in countless videos, so there is a certain risk involved in doing a workshop with him – but fortunately it was good!

While I love ochos and am now very much more confident with giros, walking remains my absolute favourite part of the dance. Some of my all-time favourite dances have been when there was room to walk, with a follower who enjoys it as much as I do. So a ‘Walking and Musicality’ workshop with Adrian and Amanda Costa was irresistible …

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Group class, Milonga

Another ‘one thing’ from my lesson, then a great night at Tango Terra!

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Tango Terra.jpg

I’d caught the end of the intermediate lesson on Tuesday, on leader and follower decorations, and it had looked fiendishly complicated. I very much hoped Luis and Natalia could be counted on for either a more accessible version, or a careful build-up to the final thing.

I needn’t have worried. Not that I could do the final version, which involved the leader pivoting on one foot while doing lapices with the other, but Luis did indeed break it down well. I was able to do my own version of it, pivoting on two feet without the lapices. And my ‘one thing from each lesson’ approach meant that while I wasn’t going to do the whole thing, I did very much like another new way to do a medio-giro …

Continue reading Another ‘one thing’ from my lesson, then a great night at Tango Terra! →

Buenos Aires, Milonga, Outdoors, Private lesson

Buenos Aires: the video

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Less a short film, more the video equivalent of a snapshot. All shot handheld on my iPhone. But while it won’t win any cinematography awards, it captures the memories rather well!

Following, Milonga, Practica

A touch of BsAs in London, and dancing almost every tanda

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La Rubia

I’d wondered how it would feel, returning to dancing in London. Whether my familiar milongas would now feel strange. Tonight’s didn’t: lots of friends were there, and I dived straight back in.

What did feel strange was that it had been four whole days since my last milonga! Technically, three days, I suppose, since we left Yira Yira in the early hours of Saturday morning and I was at the Tango Space milonga when it started at 8pm on Tuesday. As an added bonus, there was a touch of Buenos Aires to the dance …

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Buenos Aires, Progress update

Twenty-five milongas in twelve days: lessons from Buenos Aires

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Lessons from BsAs

It feels like I arrived only yesterday; it feels like I’ve been here forever. It feels like milongas are the real world, and London is some kind of vague dream.

Forever is also about the time it will take me to integrate everything I’ve learned here, both in lessons and from dancing in all those milongas – but let’s at least make a start …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Private lesson, Socialising

An amazing private, a lovely dinner and two last milongas

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Laura

Private lesson 3 with Laura Heredia

My third and final private was another with Laura, and it was an absolutely amazing one! Half of it was devoted to technique, the other half to more simple tools for use in crowded milongas and to give me more options for expressing the music.

We worked on the first step of the walk, aiming to get a vertical diagonal feel to it – pushing down into the floor with the standing foot while creating a rising sensation in the chest. Laura also had me try the Argentine style position with my left hand …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Private lesson

A day that did not go entirely to plan …

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queer tango demo

My plan for the day was simple: work in the morning, a 90-minute private in the afternoon, a suit fitting, the first hour of a milonga in the evening and in bed by midnight.

Some of that happened …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga

Just the one milonga tonight, honest …

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just one

Getting out of bed at 7am was again difficult. Well, impossible, I guess, as I didn’t. I had a rather abbreviated breakfast before work.

I’ve never been able to nap – once I’m asleep, I’m asleep, and being woken by an alarm after a short time just makes me feel like death. Not even death warmed up. But a bout of insomnia a long time ago did teach me that rest is the next best thing to sleep, so I decided to have a very lazy afternoon, just reading in bed, before heading out to an 8pm milonga …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Not Tango, Private lesson

Passing my Spanish pronunciation exam; a great private; the best bookshop in the world; and some missing magic

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El Ateneo.jpg

As is usual this week, I had work in the morning. Getting up at 7am is never pleasant in my world, but it wasn’t as bad as yesterday thanks to me exercising restraint where milongas were concerned.

After work, it was time for my second Spanish pronunciation lesson, dealing with the rest of the consonants …

Continue reading Passing my Spanish pronunciation exam; a great private; the best bookshop in the world; and some missing magic →

Buenos Aires, Milonga, Not Tango

A lesson in Spanish pronunciation, and Misteriosa Milonga

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el-beso-mysterioso

No, don’t worry, I don’t mean I caused another diplomatic incident, this time by mispronouncing something, I mean I actually took a lesson in Spanish pronunciation …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Outdoors, Private lesson

From tango lesson to feeling like a tango god in three easy steps

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Tango god.jpg

Most of my lessons are very technique-focused. The great thing about those is that a small detail can make a massive difference to the experience you give to a follower. The downside, however, is that because you’re always revisiting the basics, it can make you feel like you’re starting all over again.

Today, I went from feeling like starting again from first principles to feeling like a tango god …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Socialising

La Catedral and El Tacuari: not much dancing, but there was applause

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la-catedral.jpg

Milonga 12: La Catedral

I first saw this venue in a performance video rather early on my tango journey, and have wanted to visit it ever since.

Here’s how Wander Argentina describes it …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Practica

A relaxed afternoon at the DNI Practica and La Maria Rolera milonga

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dni-top.jpg

I got as far as the hotel lobby then had to go back upstairs for my sunglasses; seems I’d forgotten what it was like to leave the hotel in daylight.

I’d originally planned to go to La Maria Rolera to see how it compared to its sister milonga on Tuesday, but Diego was insistent I had to go to the DNI practica, and I’m certainly not going to argue with his recommendations.

I did, though, manage to go to both …

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Buenos Aires, Following, Group class, Milonga, Outdoors

Patio de Tango, La Viruta and a magical evening at Salon Canning

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Canning dance.jpg

You’ll have to excuse the blobby photos from milongas. I’m really trying not to take photos this trip. Instead, I’m shooting very short video clips with my phone, and will then edit them into maybe a 5-10 minute overview of the whole trip. This means most of my photos are in fact screengrabs from video, thus not the greatest quality.

The daytime part of the blog is rather brief: I had breakfast in bed, then lazed (apart from accidentally writing a blog post).

I made up for this laziness in the evening, managing one-and-a-bit classes and three milongas …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Progress update

Some reflections, some wanderings and an ‘entertaining’ milonga

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Marabu.jpg

My sartorial standards in milongas are respectable, but I’ve now given up on mornings. We just made it to the hotel breakfast room before it closed, and I was unshaven, with uncombed hair and wearing my Virgin sleep suit.

Breakfast was spent sorting out some more of our tango schedule. With up to 20 or so milongas from which to choose every day, it’s no easy task …

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Theory, Thoughts

Eight ways to prevent leaders giving up in their first year

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Tango graduation.jpg

An experienced tango friend tagged me in a Facebook thread by a tango teacher, on what can be done to encourage beginner leaders to stick with it long enough to graduate from Tango Hell.

I wrote a lengthy reply, and then realised I’d just written my next blog post. Here’s what I wrote …,

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Buenos Aires, Group class, Milonga, Socialising

Milongas 4 & 5: Two very different beasts!

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Floor shot.jpg

Many friends have claimed I don’t understand the concept of holidays. There is some truth to this. With my background in business travel with extremely limited time off, I’m used to making the most of the time, so there isn’t much lazing around. I’ve always taken the view that you can do that with greater comfort, convenience and economy at home.

However, this morning was a relaxed one. I did nothing more than visit the two tango shoe shops directly opposite the hotel …

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Buenos Aires, Group class, Milonga

The best night of tango of my life (so far)

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La Maria at Casa Colombo

Well, ok, yes, but ‘best night of tango of my year-and-a-bit of dancing’ is a little longwinded and doesn’t quite have the same ring to it …

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Buenos Aires, Group class, Milonga, Not Tango

A busy first day – but just the one milonga …

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muy-lunes

Today was a fairly thorough introduction to Buenos Aires. In particular, how Argentine time works.

Our plan was to attend a class, an afternoon milonga, another class and an evening milonga. We only managed the latter two – mostly because we spent a great deal of time getting our hands on some cash …

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Buenos Aires

Next stop, Buenos Aires!

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packing

Everyone says it’s only a matter of time. Take up tango, and at some point you’re going to want to go to Buenos Aires.

Diego kindly gave me a literal day-by-day milonga schedule, with a taste of everything from uber-traditional at one end through casual porteño to ‘underground,’ and I’m having a lesson and a drink with Iona Italia …

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